John Hanger, an energy and utilities expert who's also running for governor, says this is due natural gas prices having fallen 18 percent between November and February.

But more broadly, he argues, Pennsylvania — population 12.7 million — cannot subsist on the approximately 100,000 direct and indirect jobs he says drillers have created.

"Pennsylvania is not North Dakota," he told us by phone. "If your population is 600,000, and you've created 100,000 jobs, you've brought base prosperity. One hundred thousand in Pennsylvania is simply 2 percent of all jobs. We need need economic development strategy to recognize that fact and stimulate the broader economy."

The largest YOY unemployment increases were in construction (0.9 percent) and government (0.4 percent), according to state data.